RAND advances understanding of health and health behaviors and examines how the organization and financing of care affect costs, quality, and access. RAND's body of research—conducted primarily through the RAND Health division—includes innovative studies of health insurance, health care reform, health information technology, and women's health, as well as topical concerns such as obesity, complementary and alternative medicine, and PTSD in veterans and survivors of catastrophe.
With the complex process of implementing the ACA underway, RAND research is tracking the progress of implementation and assessing the potential consequences of choices facing federal and state governments, employers, families, and individuals.
In its second term, the Obama Administration can restrain further health care spending growth—without compromising quality—by employing four broad strategies: fostering efficient and accountable providers, engaging and empowering consumers, promoting population health, and facilitating high-value innovation.
Journal Article
This article reports interim findings from a randomized controlled trial evaluating Assets-Getting To Outcomes (AGTO)
Journal Article
The goal of this paper is to document and evaluate the process of implementing an evidence-based depression intervention in community settings through the use of community-academic partnered approaches.
Journal Article
Disparities in prison and diversion to drug treatment among drug-involved offenders affect hundreds of thousands of citizens and might reinforce imbalances in criminal justice and health outcomes.
Journal Article
Screening for asymptomatic diseases can reduce the burden of morbidity and mortality in all population groups.
Journal Article
In the setting of traditional residency training programs, physician-scientists are often limited in their ability to pursue research training goals while meeting clinical training requirements.
Journal Article
The authors' findings support restricting the development of fast-food outlets and attracting grocery stores, and are committed to additional research that overcomes the limitations of large studies.
Journal Article
This study examined whether Medicaid claims and other administrative data could identify high-need individuals with serious mental illness in need of outreach in a large urban setting.
Blog
Ret. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who was Army vice chief of staff, discusses why he disagrees with the idea that the post-traumatic stress soldiers suffer is a disorder with RAND president and CEO Michael Rich at RAND's Politics Aside event.
Report
Student mental health programs can improve staff, faculty, and student knowledge of mental health problems, provide skills for identifying and referring students in need, and change attitudes toward mental health problems.
Journal Article
HIV-positive men who have sex with men attending party-oriented vacation events engaged in higher rates of illegal drug use and sexual risk than HIV-negative men.
Journal Article
Within the DSM-IV, PTSD symptoms are rationally classified as assessing one of three symptom domains: reexperiencing, avoidance/numbing, or hyperarousal. However, two alternative four-factor models have been advocated as superior to the DSM-IV framework.
Blog
Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys are designed to capture patients' experiences in a systematic way that facilitates reporting the results publicly to help other consumers make more savvy care decisions. Consumer choices may influence providers to improve the care they offer so that they can effectively compete in the market.
Report
Prevention and early intervention initiatives aim to reduce the incidence of suicide and other mental health problems, and the authors evaluate these initiatives by reviewing suicide prevention (SP) literature to learn about SP program effectiveness and methodologies.
Report
A number of programs aim to reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness, and they can include a variety of components such as training, education, media campaigns, and contact with people with mental illness.
Commentary
In our national conversation on mental health, we should remember the role of families when thinking about treatment and ensure that our policies open up opportunities to support parents, siblings and relatives, and enhance their capacity for care, writes Ramya Chari.
Commentary
With an event like this, "recovery" doesn't mean a return to normal, because lives have been permanently altered. Recovery can only mean finding a new normal, a new path forward. And schools, those places of safety and healthy development, can help with that process, by providing a structure and community to support healing, writes Lisa Jaycox.
Tool
Many families experience the challenges of caregiver depression and early childhood developmental delays. Although services and supports across systems could help caregivers to deal with such issues at the family level, numerous obstacles prevent adequate screening and identification, referral, and service delivery.
Blog
The Affordable Care Act focuses primarily on extending coverage to uninsured Americans, but it is also intended to help curb cost growth. M. Susan Ridgely explains one of the key tools for doing that—the “accountable care organization,” an alternative delivery model intended to lower costs while also improving quality of care.
Blog
For all teens, and especially those who have already experienced problems related to alcohol and drug use, it is essential to monitor the quality of work experiences and keep in mind that some work environments might increase risk for substance use.
Content
Evidence is mounting that something happens when youth start working that compels them to smoke. With this trend in mind, it's worth exploring potential strategies to prevent smoking among youth who enter the workforce.
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